Ararat Province

Ararat is a province on the Ararat Plain, south of Yerevan. Its administrative center is Artashat.¹ The name of the province is not that of the historic province of Ayrarat, which was much larger; see Ayrarat.

The ancient city of Artashat was probably founded in 189 BC and was a capital until Tigranakert was founded in the 80s BC.²

The monastery of Khor Virap, which means deep pit, stands about eight kilometers from Artashat, close to the Turkish border, with a view of Mount Ararat. Gregory the Illuminator was held in the pit for thirteen years under the pagan king Tiridates III, before he was released to heal the king, who then accepted Christianity. The chapel on the site dates from 642. The church that stands today was built in the seventeenth century, and an earthquake in 1679 did the worst of the damage to it.³